Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Microscopic Intricacies of Self-Healing in Halide Perovskite–Charge-Transport-Layer Heterostructures

Abstract The operational stability of halide perovskite photovoltaics is critically limited by progressive defect generation and nonradiative losses. Self-healing of defects offers a promising route to sustained performance, yet the coupled microscopic processes underlying it rem...

Randomized PEG-Based Polycarbonate Micelles with PEG-like Stealth Properties and Biodistribution

The increase in anti-PEG antibodies (APAs) as well as PEG-related adverse effects have questioned the benefits of PEGylated nanotherapeutics. Growing awareness of the safety and efficacy of PEGylation has prompted research into countermeasures, including alternative polymers. Amo...

Synergistic antibiotic activity and integrated genomic–metabolomic profiling of patch- and plaque-derived Staphylococcus aureus in mycosis fungoides

ABSTRACT Mycosis fungoides (MF), the most common form of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, is frequently associated with skin dysbiosis, and advanced lesions are often dominated by multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus . To characterize microbiologically relevant properties of MF-as...

One-Dimensional Carbon Nanostructures with Periodic Graphitic Nitrogen Substitution

Abstract Heteroatom substitution is a powerful route to tune the chemical and electronic properties of carbon nanomaterials. In particular, replacement of an sp2-hybridized carbon atom in the graphene lattice with a nitrogen atom (denoted as graphitic nitrogen) induces substantia...

High-Entropy Materials for Electrochemical Gas Conversion

Abstract High-entropy materials (HEMs) are composed of multiple principal elements stabilized by the configurational entropy. They establish a new design paradigm in electrocatalysis by leveraging local disorder and multielement synergy to create diverse and tunable active site e...

The Xenoreactome: Where Foreign Chemistry Becomes Biological Organization

Abstract Biological systems can perform chemistry beyond their evolved reaction networks, but a reaction that is chemically possible does not necessarily occur in an intact system. I define the xenoreactome as the state- and reference-dependent network through which foreign chemi...

Gold Nanoparticle Shape and Protein Corona Effects on Radiosensitization in Neuroblastoma Cells

Abstract Gold nanoparticle (GNP) radiosensitization is influenced by particle shape and the protein corona acquired in biological environments. We investigated how GNP shape and a preformed human plasma protein corona affect the radiation response of SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells e...

Distilling First-Principles Accuracy into Compact Machine Learning Potentials for Condensed-Phase Chemistry

Abstract Accurate machine learning interatomic potentials (MLIPs) have made first-principles-quality potential energy surfaces increasingly accessible for condensed-phase chemistry, but their inference cost can still limit the sampling needed to compute experimentally relevant ob...

Cell-derived lactate triggers local hydrogelation and phenotype remodelling

Abstract Many tumours release lactate as a major metabolic product and signalling molecule. Here we use lactate flux as an endogenous trigger for covalent hydrogel formation. Phenol-functionalised alginate remains soluble until cell-derived lactate is oxidised by lactate oxidase;...

Deciphering Dynamic Self‐Healing for Crystallinity Control in β‐Ketoenamine‐Linked Covalent Organic Frameworks

ABSTRACT Covalent organic frameworks derived from triformylphloroglucinol (Tp‐COFs) represent a prominent branch of COFs due to their high potential in separation, energy storage, and optoelectronics. However, the development of Tp‐COFs is often hindered by limited crystallinity,...

Bioinspired Mechanosensitive Organic Artificial Neuron With Programmable Excitatory and Inhibitory Responses via Nonlinear Mechano‐Electrochemical Coupling

ABSTRACT Neuromorphic systems capable of directly interfacing with the physical world are essential for embodied intelligence, wearable bioelectronics, and adaptive human‐machine interaction. However, most artificial neurons process mechanical and chemical stimuli through externa...

ATP‐Mediated Bidirectional Communication Between Natural and Artificial Cells for Controlled Bioreactions

ABSTRACT Communication between living and artificial cells represents a fundamental step toward constructing hybrid systems capable of cooperative behaviors. Here, we introduce an ATP‐mediated energy transduction mechanism that enables bidirectional communication between natural...

ABAG-Rank: Improving Model Selection of AlphaFold Antibody–Antigen Complexes by Learning to Rank

MOTIVATION: AlphaFold has transformed structural biology with an unprecedented accuracy in modelling protein structures and their interactions with biomolecules, with AlphaFold3 (AF3) achieving state-of-the-art performance. However, AF3 and other methods often struggle to accurat...

Functional mapping and engineering of the Sec translocon unlocked by a cell-free system

Abstract Almost all proteins are inserted or translocated across membranes by the universally conserved Sec translocon. Despite its central role, experimental access to Sec function has remained limited. Here, we present a cell-free protein synthesis platform that inserts SecYEG...